New York Times CEO Starts New Job Amid Scandal

He left the BBC as a sexual abuse scandal erupted

The New York Times Co.‘s (NYSE:NYT) new CEO Mark Thompson has made a bumpy arrival at the struggling newspaper company. Thompson is facing questions in the U.K. resulting from a sex scandal at the BBC, where he formerly served as director-general, as he takes the reins of a company facing declining ad revenue and rising shareholder pressure.

In Britain, Thompson’s role in spiking a report on the sexual abuse of teenage girls allegedly committed by deceased BBC personality Jimmy Savile is under investigation. Thompson’s representatives say he had no part in the decision to cancel the report, TheWall Street Journal notes.

NYT has failed to pay dividends for three years. The company has sold numerous assets over the past several years, building a $1 billion cash reserve. But it still has $800 million in debt and said last year that its pension plan was underfunded by as much as $522 million.

Advertising revenue at its print publications declined 8.6% in the first nine months of 2012. Digital subscriptions are rising, but whether that will produce enough revenue to offset advertising losses remains an open question.